"THE ART OF PRAYER" - DAY 4: (SEPTEMBER 2016 - A MONTH OF BOOK REVIEW)

DAY 4, CHAPTER 4 – INTERCESSION DEFINED.

Supplication as it were, it is much more heartfelt than casual request, the word supplication means a humble, earnest, entreaty or request. Therefore, if a request is not made in a heartfelt, fervent and earnest manner, it would not be supplication as we have learnt yesterday in this book under review “The Art of Prayer”.

So today, we are considering the fourth chapter of the book, “Intercession Defined”. In this chapter, I want to draw our attention to the first sentence which says the purpose of defining intercession or any other kind of prayer is not to limit or confine prayer to a set of rules and regulations.

Intercession is inspired by the Holy Spirit. It goes beyond being legalistic and mechanical. The most effective prayer is the prayer the Holy Spirit inspires which is needed at the moment.

Briefly defined, intercession is standing in the gap in prayer between a person or persons, who have provoked judgment upon themselves through their wrongdoing and actual execution of that judgment.

The Scripture is full with examples of men who stood in gap; we can see the account of Abraham over Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18: 16-33, Abraham’s prayer for Sodom and Gomorrah is a clear example of the prayer of intercession.

Also Moses stood in gap for the children of Israel in Exodus 32: 7-14, If Moses had not stood in gap for Israel, they would surely have been destroyed in judgment.

This chapter will not be concluded without mentioning the outstanding example of an intercessor, our Lord Jesus who stood in the gap for us and now intercedes for us.

This chapter is loaded with the full details and explanation of intercession and examples of intercessors, I therefore enjoin you to dig deep into it by reading along…